Andreas Baader

Andreas Baader (6 May 1943-18 October 1977) was the leader of the Red Army Faction along with Ulrike Meinhof, Gudrun Ensslin, and a group of other leftists in West Germany. His group was responsible for numerous attacks in West Germany during the Cold War.

Biography
Andreas Baader was born on 6 May 1943 in Munich, Bavaria to a father who was missing in action with the Wehrmacht during the Great Patriotic War front of World War II. He dropped out of high school and became a criminal before forming the Red Army Faction, and in 1968 Baader and his girlfriend Gudrun Ensslin were arrested for an arson attack. In November 1969 they fled to France and returned to Germany to take part in a revolutionary struggle with their "RAF" group, which came to be known as the "Baader-Meinhof Gang" after journalist Ulrike Meinhof joined the group and became a key member. On 1 June 1972, Baader, Holger Meins, and Jan-Carl Raspe were arrested after a shootout in Frankfurt, and on 18 October 1977 he killed himself in prison with several other imprisoned RAF members.